Biological Information

In the spring of 2011, a diverse group of scientists gathered at Cornell University to discuss their research into the nature and origin of biological information. This symposium brought together experts in information theory, computer science, numerical simulation, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory, whole organism biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics, physics, biophysics, mathematics, and linguistics. This volume presents new research by those invited to speak at the conference. The contributors to this volume use their wide-ranging expertise in the area of biological information to bring fresh insights into the explanatory difficulties that biological information raises. Going beyond the conventional scientific wisdom, which attempts to explain biological information reductionistically via chemical, genetic, and natural selective determinants, the work represented here develops novel non-reductionist approaches to biological information, looking notably to telic and self-organizational processes. Several clear themes emerged from these research papers: 1) Information is indispensable to our understanding of what life is. 2) Biological information is more than the material structures that embody it. 3) Conventional chemical and evolutionary mechanisms seem insufficient to fully explain the labyrinth of information that is life. By exploring new perspectives on biological information, this volume seeks to expand, encourage, and enrich research on the nature and origin of biological information.

In the spring of 2011, a diverse group of scientists gathered at Cornell University to discuss their research into the nature and origin of biological information. This symposium brought together experts in information theory, computer science, numerical simulation, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory, whole organism biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics, physics, biophysics, mathematics, and linguistics. This volume presents new research by those invited to speak at the conference. The contributors to this volume use their wide-ranging expertise in the area of biological information to bring fresh insights into the many explanatory difficulties associated with biological information. These authors raise major challenges to the conventional scientific wisdom, which attempts to explain all biological information exclusively in terms of the standard mutation/selection paradigm. Several clear themes emerged from these research papers: 1) Information is indispensable to our understanding of what life is; 2) Biological information is more than the material structures that embody it; 3) Conventional chemical and evolutionary mechanisms seem insufficient to fully explain the labyrinth of information that is life. By exploring new perspectives on biological information, this volume seeks to expand, encourage, and enrich research into the nature and origin of biological information.

This book is a self-contained, tutorial-based introduction to quantum information theory and quantum biology. It serves as a single-source reference to the topic for researchers in bioengineering, communications engineering, electrical engineering, applied mathematics, biology, computer science, and physics. The book provides all the essential principles of the quantum biological information theory required to describe the quantum information transfer from DNA to proteins, the sources of genetic noise and genetic errors as well as their effects. Integrates quantum information and quantum biology concepts; Assumes only knowledge of basic concepts of vector algebra at undergraduate level; Provides a thorough introduction to basic concepts of quantum information processing, quantum information theory, and quantum biology; Includes in-depth discussion of the quantum biological channel modelling, quantum biological channel capacity calculation, quantum models of aging, quantum models of evolution, quantum models on tumor and cancer development, quantum modeling of bird navigation compass, quantum aspects of photosynthesis, quantum biological error correction.

Living beings require constant information processing for survival. In cells, information is being processed and propagated at various levels, from the gene regulatory network to chemical pathways, to the interaction with the environment. How this is achieved and how information is coded is still poorly understood. For example, what a cell interprets as information in the temporal level of an mRNA and what is interpreted as noise remains an open question. Recently, information theoretical methods and other tools, developed in the context of engineering and natural sciences, have been applied to study diverse biological processes. This book covers the latest findings on how information is processed in various biological processes, ranging from information processing and propagation in gene regulatory networks to information processing in natural language. An overview is presented of the state-of-the-art in information processing in biological systems and the opinion of current leaders in this research field on future research directions.

Highlighted with individual contributions from eminent specialists, these multiauthored volumes combine authority, inspiration and state-of-the-art knowledge. Both informative and inspiring they are designed to appeal to scientists and interested laypeople alike. Volume 2 complements and extends the scope of the first, with the biological viewpoint being stressed. Following an introductory chapter on design as understood in biology, the various aspects of the biological information revolution are addressed. Areas discussed include molecular structure, the genome, development, and neural networks. A section on information theory provides a link with engineering, and the scope is also broadened to include the implications of motion in nature and engineering.

This book outlines the electro-activity in the human body, human behavior, and other bio-information during image viewing and applies it to a hygienic and clinical setting. The book begins by explaining the basic science of brain measurements and the endocrine system, before analyzing the bio-signals obtained from electrocardiogram (ECG), electrogastrography (EGG), electro-oculography (EOG) and much more. As the book subsequently demonstrates, these bio-signals can be measured using wearable devices, and the data can be used to detect undiagnosed diseases and health-relevant abnormalities. Especially in the field of nursing care for the elderly and rehabilitation, these new options for the management and analysis of biological information hold considerable potential. Bio-information for Hygiene offers a valuable resource for both new and established researchers, as well as students who are seeking comprehensive information on environmental/occupational health and health promotion. It will also assist technical staff whose work involves bio-informatics.

Biological data of all kinds is proliferating at an incredible rate. If humans attempt to read such data in the form of numbers and letters, they will take in the information at a snail's pace. If the information is rendered graphically, however, human analysts can assimilate it and gain insight at a much faster rate. The emphasis of this book is on the graphic representation of information-containing sequences such as DNA and amino acid sequences in order to help the human analyst find interesting and biologically relevant patterns. The editor's goal is to make this voyage through molecular biology, genetics and computer graphics as accessible to a broad audience as possible, with the inclusion of glossaries at the end of most chapters and program outlines where applicable. The book will be of most interest to biologists and computer scientists and the various large reference lists should be of interest to beginners and advanced students of biology, graphic art and computer science. Contributors have sought to find pattern and meaning in the cacophony of genetic and protein sequence data using unusual computer graphics and musical techniques. Contents:A Picture of the Genetic Code (R Swanson & S M Swanson)Graphic Representations of Amino Acid Sequences (A Williams et al.)Representing Protein Sequence and Three-Dimensional Structure in Two Dimensions (R Swanson)Visual Display of Sequence Conservation as an Aid to Taxonomic Classification Using PCR Amplification (P K Rogan et al.)Perceptible Features in Graphical Representations of Nucleic Acid Sequences (J Ninio and E Mizraji)Representations of Protein Patterns from Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis Databases (P F Lemkin)A Protein Visualization Program (D A Kuznetsov & H A Lim)Gene Music: Tonal Assignments of Bases and Amino Acids (N Munakata & K Hayashi)Diagrammatic Representation of Base Composition in DNA Sequences (C-T Zhang)A Transforming Function for the Generation of Fractal Functions from Nucleotide Sequences (J Campione-Piccardo)Visualization of Open Reading Frames in mRNA Sequences (P B Hackett et al.)Visualization of Protein Sequences Using the Two-Dimensional Hydrophobic Cluster Analysis Method (M T Semertzidis et al.)Diagnosis of Complex Patterns in Protein Sequences (T K Attwood & D J Parry-Smith)RNA Folding and Evolution (K Yamamoto & H Yoshikura)Representation of Biological Sequences Using Point Geometry Analysis (Y K Huen) Readership: General. keywords:Genomics;Genetics;Genome;Scientific Visualization;Computer Graphics;Proteomics;Bioinformatics;DNA;Fractals;Biology;Molecular Biology;Biochemistry;Computational Biology;Amino Acids;Proteins;Protein Sequences;DNA Sequences;Genetic Code “Biologists and computer scientists will find treasure in this serious exploration of visualization in molecular biology and information-containing sequences. The editor's extensive preface is invaluable to the general reader and to those interested in the rapidly expanding world of biology on the Internet.” Dawn C S Friedman “… this is a fascinating book about a fascinating subject … two impressive colour plates and many black and white illustrations and diagrams … Some of the contributions go beyond the description of the algorithms and methods and include computer code … Their chapter includes 3 music scores produced from DNA data and a script for “Hypercard” and “HyperMIDI 2.0” (Macintosh computer). Some of the algorithms to “visualise” the sequences are in principle simple and at the same time very powerful; with some computer skills one may be able to reproduce or implement the methods describes … it will be of interest to a broad range of readers, from biochemists to molecular biologists, computer and computer graphics scientists … may also appeal to computer enthusiasts …” Gabriel Landini Fractal Report “This example of the work of the greatest artist of all, Nature herself, is also the frontispiece of the biological visualization book.” The Chemical Intelligencer